da Silva Daliane R C, Mapukata Sivuyisiwe, Currie Sara, Kitos Alexandros A, Lanterna Anabel E, Nyokong Tebello, Scaiano Juan C
Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada.
Institute for Nanotechnology Innovation, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa.
ACS Omega. 2023 Jun 8;8(24):21585-21593. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c00781. eCollection 2023 Jun 20.
Water decontamination remains a challenge in several developed and developing countries. Affordable and efficient approaches are needed urgently. In this scenario, heterogeneous photocatalysts appear as one of the most promising alternatives. This justifies the extensive attention that semiconductors, such as TiO, have gained over the last decades. Several studies have evaluated their efficiency for environmental applications; however, most of these tests rely on the use of powder materials that have minimal to no applicability for large-scale applications. In this work, we investigated three fibrous TiO photocatalysts, TiO nanofibers (TNF), TiO on glass wool (TGW), and TiO in glass fiber filters (TGF). All materials have macroscopic structures that can be easily separated from solutions or that can work as fixed beds under flow conditions. We evaluated and compared their ability to bleach a surrogate dye molecule, crocin, under batch and flow conditions. Using black light (UVA/visible), our catalysts were able to bleach a minimum of 80% of the dye in batch experiments. Under continuous flow experiments, all catalysts could decrease dye absorption under shorter irradiation times: TGF, TNF, and TGW could, respectively, bleach 15, 18, and 43% of the dye with irradiation times as short as 35 s. Catalyst comparison was based on the selection of physical and chemical criteria relevant for application on water remediation. Their relative performance was ranked and applied in a radar plot. The features evaluated here had two distinct groups, chemical performance, which related to the dye degradation, and mechanical properties, which described their applicability in different systems. This comparative analysis gives insights into the selection of the right flow-compatible photocatalyst for water remediation.
在一些发达国家和发展中国家，水净化仍然是一项挑战。迫切需要经济高效的方法。在这种情况下，非均相光催化剂似乎是最有前途的替代方案之一。这就解释了为什么像TiO这样的半导体在过去几十年里受到了广泛关注。多项研究评估了它们在环境应用中的效率；然而，这些测试大多依赖于使用粉末材料，而这些材料在大规模应用中适用性极小甚至没有适用性。在这项工作中，我们研究了三种纤维状TiO光催化剂：TiO纳米纤维（TNF）、玻璃棉上的TiO（TGW）和玻璃纤维过滤器中的TiO（TGF）。所有材料都具有宏观结构，能够轻松地从溶液中分离出来，或者在流动条件下作为固定床使用。我们评估并比较了它们在分批和流动条件下使一种替代染料分子藏红花素褪色的能力。使用黑光（UVA/可见光），我们的催化剂在分批实验中能够使至少80%的染料褪色。在连续流动实验中，所有催化剂在更短的照射时间下都能降低染料的吸光度：TGF、TNF和TGW在照射时间短至35秒时，分别能使15%、18%和43%的染料褪色。催化剂的比较基于与水修复应用相关的物理和化学标准的选择。它们的相对性能被排序并应用于雷达图中。这里评估的特性有两个不同的组，与染料降解相关的化学性能和描述它们在不同系统中适用性的机械性能。这种比较分析为选择适合水修复的与流动兼容的光催化剂提供了见解。
